From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your teacher to encourage students to attend and engage?
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observation - In the class I most recently sat in, Mrs. H was going over a few review sheets that she gave to her students because on the last quiz she gave the students grades were subpar. She wanted to try to reinforce what the students didn't fully understand after getting back the quiz scores. I posted up in the back of the room and tried to concentrate on the students behaviors and reactions towards the review. In this class it was key that the students participate in the discussion that Mrs. H was bringing upon the class. In most cases the students were actively participating, but she does have trouble reaching out to one of her classes. The students very rarely participate, no matter how many times she pleads for them, and tells them how it will help them learn, the concept of participation just does not set in with them. She told them taht if participation in the class didn't improve then she would make participation a percentage of the final grade. This seemed to get the students to participate a little more, but not nearly as much as the other periods Mrs. H teaches. Students talking in the class isn't neccesarily a problem for her. Most of her students are very well behaved, except for a few select students that are constantly trying to answer all the questions that she asks by just yelling out random answers. She silences these attempts by simply calling on other students who raise their hands. One thing that I did notice was some of the children who missed the previous class and didn't receive the review sheet until that day were not neccesarily following along. The students should have been filling in the answers while they were going through the sheet this way they could use the sheets as a tool to study for when its time for their quaterly test. The teacher usually does a great job of noticing when a child is slacking off or not following along with the lesson. When she notices a particular student not following along, she tries to engage them in the discussion by asking them a question she knows they can answer. Also in two of Mrs H. classes she has another teacher in the class who was walking around and tapping on students desks to make sure that they were following along with the review. She was having the students write down on the review sheet what page number in the book where the answers can be found. Reflection- I believe that student engagement is definitely key to the success in the classroom. If the students are actively participating in your lesson then they are definitely going to be getting more out of the lesson. I feel that if you ask the students questions that they can relate to real life situations then they are more likely to be engaged in the discussion. Ways that I would try to be sure that everyone is involved would be walking around the room while the lesson is being taught. This way the students who are sitting in the back are not always the furthest away from the teacher. I also feel that there are many reasons why students don't participate in class. (bad day, afraid to be wrong, shy, or simply dont know the answer) It is important for the teacher to try to get to the bottom to why particular students are not participating. Maybe if they are afraid to answer then the teacher can set up a system where they will tap on the students desk a few minutes before they are going to ask them a question so that they are ready to answer when the time comes. Also it is important to let the students know that getting an answer wrong is not the end of the world. Noone is going to criticize them just because they answered a question wrong, in many cases when you get an answer wrong, and then are reinforced with the right answer then that answer is something that you are more likely to remember for the test. It is important that all of my students will be comfortable in my class and that they are willing to participate. If this is the case then my student teaching classroom will deifnitely run a lot more smooth then if the children refuse to participate.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observation - In the class I most recently sat in, Mrs. H was going over a few review sheets that she gave to her students because on the last quiz she gave the students grades were subpar. She wanted to try to reinforce what the students didn't fully understand after getting back the quiz scores. I posted up in the back of the room and tried to concentrate on the students behaviors and reactions towards the review. In this class it was key that the students participate in the discussion that Mrs. H was bringing upon the class. In most cases the students were actively participating, but she does have trouble reaching out to one of her classes. The students very rarely participate, no matter how many times she pleads for them, and tells them how it will help them learn, the concept of participation just does not set in with them. She told them taht if participation in the class didn't improve then she would make participation a percentage of the final grade. This seemed to get the students to participate a little more, but not nearly as much as the other periods Mrs. H teaches. Students talking in the class isn't neccesarily a problem for her. Most of her students are very well behaved, except for a few select students that are constantly trying to answer all the questions that she asks by just yelling out random answers. She silences these attempts by simply calling on other students who raise their hands. One thing that I did notice was some of the children who missed the previous class and didn't receive the review sheet until that day were not neccesarily following along. The students should have been filling in the answers while they were going through the sheet this way they could use the sheets as a tool to study for when its time for their quaterly test. The teacher usually does a great job of noticing when a child is slacking off or not following along with the lesson. When she notices a particular student not following along, she tries to engage them in the discussion by asking them a question she knows they can answer. Also in two of Mrs H. classes she has another teacher in the class who was walking around and tapping on students desks to make sure that they were following along with the review. She was having the students write down on the review sheet what page number in the book where the answers can be found.
Reflection- I believe that student engagement is definitely key to the success in the classroom. If the students are actively participating in your lesson then they are definitely going to be getting more out of the lesson. I feel that if you ask the students questions that they can relate to real life situations then they are more likely to be engaged in the discussion. Ways that I would try to be sure that everyone is involved would be walking around the room while the lesson is being taught. This way the students who are sitting in the back are not always the furthest away from the teacher. I also feel that there are many reasons why students don't participate in class. (bad day, afraid to be wrong, shy, or simply dont know the answer) It is important for the teacher to try to get to the bottom to why particular students are not participating. Maybe if they are afraid to answer then the teacher can set up a system where they will tap on the students desk a few minutes before they are going to ask them a question so that they are ready to answer when the time comes. Also it is important to let the students know that getting an answer wrong is not the end of the world. Noone is going to criticize them just because they answered a question wrong, in many cases when you get an answer wrong, and then are reinforced with the right answer then that answer is something that you are more likely to remember for the test. It is important that all of my students will be comfortable in my class and that they are willing to participate. If this is the case then my student teaching classroom will deifnitely run a lot more smooth then if the children refuse to participate.